I seek funding to finish The IHaveAbody documentary, written and directed by Theresa Byrnes and filmed and edited by Craig Youngren. IHaveBody maps a thirty-year journey from 1996, when I, along with seven childhood friends, incorporated the Theresa Byrnes Foundation in Australia, raising over a quarter of a million dollars to fund scientific research aimed at developing a treatment and cure for Friedreich’s Ataxia. Now, in 2025, a treatment has finally become available. 

In 1997, I was featured on a 60-minute episode campaigning to raise funds for research, and they quoted me saying, 'It's a race against time regarding developing treatment or a cure for FA. Not waiting to be freed and too excited about living to be healed, I moved to New York, newly in a wheelchair, to further my career as an artist. 

The IHaveAbody documentary explores the profound distinction between having a body and being a body. It promises an engaging narrative that examines the complex relationship we have with our physical selves. The coaction of art and physics, soul and science, a revolutionary experiment in self-optimization. “IHaveABody” highlights my performance art, the painting processes in my studio, and engaging interviews with an Aboriginal elder, scientists, and a Buddhist sensei, it also features my workouts, emphasizing how physical training serves as a powerful communication between mind, body, and will.

Theresa’s community in NEW YORK and in SYDNEY journey with her in her art and truth-seeking. Training and creating consistently with the effects of (FA) on her body, we rise with her to the Challenge of Suffering and see that the future is not written by our genes but with our imagination!

My career has been recognized by The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian Magazine, The Australian Women's Weekly Magazine, Madison Magazine, Who Weekly, and The Daily Telegraph. On television, I have appeared on A Current Affair, 60 Minutes, and The 7:30 Report. In the US, I have been featured in The Villager, Chelsea News, and The New York Times Magazine.

I have learned in the past 30 years  (surpassing my life expectancy by a decade) about creating art, health, and happiness while experiencing FA, I want to share the tricks of surviving well with FA through the example of my life. IN THE DOCUMENTARY, I engage in intense meditation and perfomance art. I create abstract paintings,  and figurative sketches that project the development of my body. The major work is the measured effects of the IHaveABody project on my body and the completion of the painting, "Freedom With Fa".

On March 27, 2025, on my deceased father's birthday, I took my first dose of Skyclarys, the first treatment for FA. No other young person should let FA progress without treatment! Another treatment is coming out at the end of the year for young people with FA. The buck stops here! While this treatment may be too late to help me, I have always been free.

- Contribute to IHaveAbody and participate in this awareness-raising project.

- All donations acknowledged in the film's credits, regardless of the amount: from $10 to $75,000 platinum sponsorship.

  - Donations ranging from $1,000 to $4,900: Bronze sponsor.
  - Donations from $5,000 to $10,000: Silver sponsor.
  - Donations of $50,000: Gold sponsor.

- If you'd like a painting in gratitude for your contribution, please stay in touch.

- Email me for more information about painting selections or commission opportunities. 
- We plan to premiere IHaveABody in Sydney, Australia, and New York in May 2026.

We all HaveABody, and we are all creators!

Thank you,

Theresa

theresabyrnesstudio@gmail.com
www.theresabyrnes.com